I had to cath this man who was in his 40's, he ended up having to go for emergency surgery, he was in agonizing abd pain with a perfed bowel. When I went to cath him he managed to mentioned that it was all shriveled up. (Incidentally, he actually appeared to be a normal sized male)
The surgeon actually wasn't sure if he was going to survive surgery, but he did come back with an A-line, CVP line, and a brand new ileostomy. On the second day I had him, he managed to go more in depth into the fact that he "doesn't have much down there that any girl would be interested in" and comments like that. Honestly, this man was totally average looking.
He was a very gentle man, mid 40s, gainfully employed, who still lives with his mother, who was really nice. I just didn't know how to handle this. I think this must have been a life long insecurity. I almost said to him that he wasn't actually small, he really wasn't, but I didn't want to act like I really notice this. But, I do have vast experience with this aspect of nursing, I do notice if a man looks either unusually larger or smaller than the average, and this man definately was actually probably better than average, especially since he was in a cold hospital room in agonizing pain.
